How basic do you need? Beginning stitches? Projects from start to finish? Redwork, modern, english, transfers, counted cross stitch.......there are a raft out there.
For stitches ONLY I like Mary Webb's Embroidery Stitches 400 Contemporary and Traditional Stitch Patterns. Stitches are arranged in categories and ranked by difficulty. The first chapter covers many of the basics. I got mine at abebooks.com. It has stitches,not projects.
Mary Thomas Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches has the 'look inside' feature at Amazon.com. If I were buying I'd seriously consider it. Besides the stitches, examples are pictured. It is a newly revised edition of a classic.
Last edited by Greenheron; 09-11-2012 at 09:18 PM.